Hollywood Tailoring Movies For Overseas Audiences
by Glenn Whip
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hollywood knows pirates and robots travel well overseas. This summer, movie studios will learn if the same holds true for hung-over Americans, alien-battling cowboys and animated cars that detour from Route 66.
And if these movies get hung up at the border, you can't say the filmmakers didn't put in the effort.
With international moviegoers now accounting for up to two-thirds of a blockbuster's total receipts, movies are more than ever being crafted with overseas audiences in mind from story to casting to setting. Some animated films even substitute vocal talent, characters and jokes country by country.
If we have storylines that at script-stage feel too U.S.-centric, especially with big action or science-fiction movies, we try to come up with solutions that will make the movie feel more global, says Tomas Jegeus, co-president of 20th Century Fox International Theatrical.
Evidence of that focus has been strong so far this year as more and more theaters enter the international marketplace. The high-octane heist picture Fast Five, set in Rio de Janeiro and sporting a cast packing global appeal, currently leads the worldwide box office. Its revenues just passed the animated movie Rio, also set in Brazil.
Both films also opened in selected international territories earlier than North America. That release pattern, once rare, is now commonplace a concession both to piracy concerns and the importance of the global audience.
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